Author: kendra

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Does YOUR Uniquely You Irritate You?

Mine does. The crappy plastic ring that holds up the dress form broke long ago, and I have spent years using tape and a hot glue gun to try to get it to stay up… only to have it slide down days or even hours after I’ve jerry-rigged something. Well today, while sewing, I got mad enough that I finally went down to the local hardware store to see what they had. I wanted to report that I bought a stainless steel “collar” (basically looks like a big round metal washer – same technology as the crappy plastic ring they send you) for $3.99.

The 3/4 size JUST fit on the stand (they had to use a mallet to get it on, but once it was on there was just enough extra room to move it up and down). It has a screw built in that I tightened with an allen wrench and presto – dress form is UP. It’s been up for about 5 hours so far with no slippage… but even if it does, at least a solid metal ring will be easier to mess with than a broken plastic one. So if your Uniquely You irritates you as much as mine irritates me, get ye to your local hardware store (with your stand) and ask for a collar. You will thank me.

Edited to add: As of 9am the next day, it’s still up! With tons of petticoats and things on it! Yay!

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Costume College Class List Up

For the first time that I have ever seen, and I’ve been going to Costume College for many years now, they actually have their classes listed on their website BEFORE memberships have sold out. This means, if you haven’t yet bought a membership, that you can see which classes will be on offer before purchasing – for the first time ever. You don’t get to see the class schedule (which hasn’t yet been mailed out, and only goes to those with memberships), so you don’t know which classes overlap and which ones have limited attendance… but you can get a much clearer idea if the classes will appeal to you. So if you’ve hemmed and hawed about going, you’ve got some more information to help you make that decision!

(And note: memberships WILL sell out ahead of time, so if you’re thinking of going, get your money in soon… plus that way you will get into some of the limited classes. If you wait too long, you probably won’t, and those can sometimes be some of the coolest classes).

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I’m a Published Author: pt. 2

In my professional role I’m an academic librarian with faculty status, which means I get/have to do research. Luckily, I get to do it in an area I’m interested in (fashion in social history)! I’ve just had a scholarly article published, the second one to look at the role of fashion among the elite women who went to Smith College in the 1920s (you can read about the first article here).

This one is called “Fashioning the College Woman: Dress, Gender, and Sexuality at Smith College in the 1920s” and is in the most recent (March 2009) issue of the Journal of American Culture. Basically, it looks at the discussion/debates around the “meanings” of women’s fashion in the 1920s and how Smith students interpreted those meanings — looking at issues like the “New Woman” (fashion as progress) and sexuality (the eroticization of fashion in this era). Good times!